Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 6th, 2011

Johnny Depp’s Rango wrangles to the top of the box office, while Matt Damon makes a minor Adjustment; Kevin Spacey and David Fincher stack a House of Cards; Beware The Ides of March – in October; Tony and Ridley Scott speak Pigeon English; Joel Silver has A Line of Sight, It’s A. Mann’s World for Kelly Hu, Caitlin Crosby, Sandra Vergara and J.R. Bourne and more.

Alex Pettyfer is hot off the disappointment that is I Am Number Four, but he should take some solace that his latest effort Beastly surpassed tracking and scored a $10 million debut. It’s still not great, and it still looks like he won’t be the “next big thing,” at least not at the minute.

Hall Pass dropped to four after grossing another $9 million. The Owen Wilson headlined comedy has now banked over $27 million. It’s not a great result but not a total disaster.

Gnomeo and Juliet grossed $6.9 million, giving the the Elton John musical an $83 million total.

Liam Neeson’s Unknownbrought in around $6.6 million. The Euro-actioner has now banked a solid $53 million.

Just Go With Itupped its gross to $88 million after grossing another $6.5 million. Expect the Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston comedy to hit $100 million.

Oscar champion The King’s Speech grossed another $6.5 million. The Colin Firth drama has now scored a mighty $123.8 million.

I Am Number Four dropped further down the charts after taking another $5.7 million. The Twilight-like film has grossed nearly $47 million. Pretty unimpressive.

Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never brought in another $4.3 million and upped its total to almost $69 million.

80s comedy Take Me Home Tonight was a newcomer at eleven. The long delayed Topher Grace film took approximately $3.5 million.

Movie News

1. Kevin Spacey will star in and executive produce a remake of the British television series (and novel) House of Cards. Spacey will be reunited with his Seven director David Fincher who will helm the pilot.

According to Deadline:

“The political-thriller novel House of Cards, written by Michael Dobbs, former Conservative Party chief of staff, is set at the end of Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as prime minister and follows a British politician with his eye on the top job.”

2. George Clooney’s latest directorial effort The Ides of March will open on October 14th. The move shows that Sony is now looking forward to the next awards season and that it believes the film has the potential to be a major contender on the awards campaign trail.

According to THR:

“Ides of March follows a young press secretary who falls prey to dirty backroom politics as he works to get his candidate elected in a tight race.”

Clooney takes supporting role in the screen version of Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North, which has been adapted by Clooney’s producing partner Grant Heslov. Ides of March also stars Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, and Paul Giamatti.

3. The television arm of Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott Free production company has optioned Stephen Kelman’s novel Pigeon English.

According to Deadline:

“Pigeon English follows Harri, a 12-year-old Ghanaian boy, newly arrived in London who lives in a housing project with his mother and sister. When Harri and his friend Dean see police tape around a boy murdered on the estate, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own – putting his family into danger.”